Community SCALE is coalition of residents in Raleigh's established neighborhoods who are working together to advocate for the kind of development in our communities that respects the existing built environment, the natural environment, and the history of individual neighborhoods.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Community SCALE wants you to be aware of what’s happened/what’s coming up at City Hall each week.

Please feel free to forward this email. If someone forwarded it to you and you want to be added to our email list, please email communityscale@gmail.com

Here are some of the events planned for the coming weeks. It’s always helpful to have community members attend to show interest in these topics, ask questions, etc. If you plan to attend any of these meetings, we’ll be glad to include your meeting summary in future articles.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Community SCALE wants you to be aware of what’s happened/what’s coming up at City Hall each week.

Please feel free to forward this email. If someone forwarded it to you and you want to be added to our email list, please email communityscale@gmail.com

Here are some of the events planned for the coming weeks. It’s always helpful to have community members attend to show interest in these topics, ask questions, etc. If you plan to attend any of these meetings, we’ll be glad to include your meeting summary in future articles.

7/17 Stormwater Stakeholder Meeting – staff reported that the office has NOT been deluged with requests from builders to exceed impervious surface limits set by the text change adopted 11-27-16, which limits the amount of impervious surface that can be added to an existing house. The text change sets a threshold percent of maximum impervious surface per lot, ranging from 20% for R-1 lots up to 51% for R-10 lots. Builders may add any amount of impervious surface up to these thresholds without needing to install storm water controls. Beyond these thresholds, builders can build more than 400 additional square feet of impervious surface only if they also include in the design appropriate storm water control "devices" that keep the storm water amount from that property the same as it was before the addition. The office created an online tool that builders can use to estimate at the BEGINNING of the design process whether the design is compliant with these thresholds or not. The builders really like this tool, too, and they're using it.

7/21 – Candidate filing for October 10th Raleigh City Council Elections closed – make sure you’re registered to vote!

Week of July 10 – what happened

7/11 Comprehensive Plan meeting on Sustainability – focus was on Environmental Stewardship, Economic Strength and Social Integrity. The division is doing some innovative things to clean water and to better manage solid material in the process of cleaning water to go back into the Neuse River to become another town’s drinking water. Issues brought forward from the audience included a city wide composting program for kitchen scraps, improved recycling collection in townhouse/apartment complexes, recycling in schools, solar incentives for new home builders, and the textile recycling program.

Friday, July 7, 2017

Community SCALE wants you to be aware of what’s happened/what’s coming up at City Hall each week.

Please feel free to forward this email. If someone forwarded it to you and you want to be added to our email list, please email communityscale@gmail.com

Here are some of the events planned for the coming weeks. It’s always helpful to have community members attend to show interest in these topics, ask questions, etc. If you plan to attend any of these meetings, we’ll be glad to include your meeting summary in future articles.

Please help with a summer weed cleanup of historic Oberlin Cemetery on Saturday July 15 from 9 AM to 12 Noon. We are asking adults to attend and bring weed eaters, wheelbarrows, weed killer and sprayers. Our next general cleanup for volunteers of all ages will be held in October. For more information, please contact Cheryl Williams, 919.592-2333 or ctulette@live.com.

At the July 5 City Council meeting, Russ Stephenson introduced a resolution to set aside the May 2nd vote regarding Citizen Engagement and CACs in order to restart the citizen engagement process. The City Council is now scheduled to meet at 4pm on Monday, August 28, for a work session on citizen engagement.

City Council also approved TC-20-16 regarding construction safety barrier fencing.

Welcome

We hope you will visit here often and become involved. By paying attention, working together, and being active in the civic process, we can help preserve the integrity and diversity of our neighborhoods in Raleigh. We work to fulfill this mission by advocating and educating. Our message packet can be found here.

Community SCALE invites you to share information and calls for neighborhood action by participating in this community forum.

DONATE

SCALE is working to help inform the citizens of Raleigh about the process for developing the new code and regulations. If you would like to contribute to help us with the costs of printing and mailings, please click here to donate through Paypal.

Protect the Protest Petition in NC - 2013

Online Petition Still Available (2007-2008 comments here)

Raleigh is not alone, battles about teardowns are being waged in towns and cities across the country. This trend toward replacing older stable neighborhoods with newly developed streets of oversized homes will continue unfettered unless action is taken.

Neighborhood changes that are driven by private residents can enhance the community. The future of the inner neighborhoods, and the beauty of Raleigh itself, will suffer as long as speculative market forces are driving the changes. The property rights of ALL residents are equally important. If you are a concerned resident, please lend your voice to the debate by visiting and participating in this petition.

We ask that signers:1. be 18 or older2. include the neighborhood you live in, to demonstrate that this is a problem all over Raleigh - you may do this and still be viewed as anonymous3. be sure to only sign once4. forward this on to your friends and neighbors

Community SCALE of RaleighRaleigh's neighborhood-to-neighborhood connector, where residents keep informed of civic activities affecting their community,and neighborhoods share issues directly across the city. Please join us. Contact us to be added to a mailing list for action alerts and updates.Together we do make a difference.